Perspectives on the World Christian Movement!
What is it?
How Perspectives Became Personal for Me
My own involvement with Perspectives began around 2002 through what seemed like a simple invitation.
One of my wife Naomi’s fellow nurses gave her a coupon for a free introductory session at her church. She told Naomi:
“Richard will be interested in this.”
She was right.
I attended that first session and quietly sat in the back of the room. A friend from my own church happened to sit beside me.
During the intermission, he laid a $100 bill on the table and asked something like:
“Are you going to join the class?”
The timing was interesting. I had recently resigned from my full-time job, so enrolling in a course was not necessarily something I had planned to do.
But I picked up that $100 bill, walked to the registration table and signed up.
The rest is history.
During the course, I came to know one of the instructors. When he and his wife returned the following year to teach his portion of the course, they stayed in our home.
In later years, I sometimes drove him to nearby cities where he was teaching during the same week.
What began with a coupon for a free first session, a seat in the back of a classroom and an unexpected $100 gift developed into a lifelong friendship.
Looking back, I can see how God used several ordinary people—a nurse, my wife, a generous friend and a visiting instructor—to open a new door in my life.
That experience reflects one of the central messages of Perspectives: God is carrying out a purpose much larger than any one of us, yet He graciously invites ordinary people to participate.
A Course Worth Revisiting
One of the most valuable features for me was discovering that completing the course did not necessarily mean that my participation had to end.
In the classes with which I was involved, former students could return in following years and sit in on one, two or several lessons without paying again. Someone might repeat a lesson that had been especially meaningful, revisit a subject that was difficult to absorb the first time or attend because a new instructor was presenting it.
This was an important benefit because Perspectives is not the type of course from which a person learns everything in one semester.
There is too much material, too many ideas and too many personal stories to fully absorb the first time through.
A returning student may hear the same general subject presented by a different instructor with entirely different experiences. One year an instructor might describe ministry in Africa. Another year, someone may explain how churches are growing in Asia, Latin America, Europe or the Middle East.
Even when the course outline remains consistent, the firsthand experiences and illustrations may be very different.
The Perspectives website itself includes the testimony of a student who has taken the course numerous times, heard many instructors and found that each experience provided additional learning and insight.
Because complimentary alumni attendance may be arranged locally rather than guaranteed nationally, former students should contact the coordinator of the class they would like to visit and ask whether they may attend selected lessons without charge.
In my experience, this opportunity to return made Perspectives more than a one-time course. It became a continuing source of learning, relationships and spiritual encouragement.
